Lying Is An Awfully Strong Word
by kcat1971
Summary: [Transitions Universe Story #6] Josh & Donna meet Sam's fiancée. A short story. (December 2006)
1. Chapter 1

"Josh! Are you almost ready to go? We told Sam we'd met them at the restaurant at 7:30!"

I'm sitting in a chair in the living room with my coat on. I'm ready to go. She's in the bathroom touching up her make-up. If she hadn't wanted to change her clothes, we could have left straight from the White House and we wouldn't be having this issue at all. I roll my eyes to myself.

"Ready when you are, honey."

"Did you just roll your eyes at me?" She hollers from the bathroom. How does she do that? I know better than to actually answer the question. Instead, I check my blackberry and try to wait patiently. She already looks amazing. It's not like she can improve perfection.

I still don't get why we needed to come home at all. At work earlier, she was wearing grey dress pants with a fuzzy pink sweater. It's a cute outfit. I've always liked it on her. But when I told her that Sam had asked us to join him for dinner so that we could meet his fiancée, she reluctantly agreed as long as we could stop at home so she could change her clothes first. I told her she looked great but she had insisted saying, "Josh. Look at me, I can't meet an attorney looking like this!"

Finally, she comes out of the bedroom.

"Whoa! You look good!" She's wearing all black, some sort of wrap dress that has a tie around the waist.

"Well, you don't need to act so surprised!"

Danger Will Robinson! Something is not quite right here. That was a little more snark than banter. I get up and meet her in the middle of the room. I've got her coat in my hands. I hold it out so she can slip her arms into it.

"Hey." I say softly in her ear. "You know I'm not surprised. You always look great. What's wrong?" I'm asking but if I had to, I bet I could guess. Her earlier comment about meeting an attorney is the clue. This is about insecurities. Every once in a while they still rear their ugly head.

She's not answering so I turn her around so that I'm looking in her eyes. "You are an amazing, powerful, smart woman. I am a lucky, lucky, lucky man."

She smiles softly at me. "Thanks for the reminder. Love you."

Okay, let see if we can bring the banter back. A fiesty Donna can match wits with anyone.

"Ya know, the reason I said 'Whoa!' Was to stop myself from getting up and untying that dress to see what you've got on underneath."

She smiles slyly. "What makes you think I'm wearing anything underneath?"

Great. Donna's back and now I'm going to be a wreck for the rest of the night. I tell you what, Sam's fiancée better be a great conversationalist or I'm making an excuse to get out of there before dessert, best friend or not.

On the way over to the restaurant, Donna's on a roll- "you know I can't believe you didn't even find out her name! We could have done all sorts of opposition research before dinner, and been more prepared."

We arrive at the restaurant at 7:25. As the valet pulls away, Donna turns to me and says "See. Right on time. I don't know what you were worried about." The sass is back. That's my girl.

I give the Maitre D' Sam's name and he leads us toward the back of the restaurant. As we are following him, Donna nudges me.

"Look, there's Ainsley Hayes. I want to say hello." Ainsley is sitting by herself at table up ahead over by a window.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. She accepted the President-Elect's offer today. She's going to be Deputy White House Counsel."

"That's great! We should invite her out to celebrate later. I've always like Ainsley."

"Me too."

"No, you didn't, Josh! She annoyed you at first. You only gave her a chance because she kicked Sam's ass on TV."

"Well, that's true."

"Hey. Do you think that Ainsley and I look alike?" What do I look stupid?

"No. Absolutely not. You are way prettier."

"Just a second." Donna touchs the Maitre D's arm. "I want to go say hello to my friend." She leaves him standing there and cuts through the middle of the restaurant to go up to Ainsley's table. I shrug at him and follow her.

The Maitre D' gives me an inscrutable look and turns on his heel and walks away. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to find Sam on our own.

When we get to the table, Ainsley stands up and gives Donna a hug.

"Josh! Donna! It's so good to see you! Sam will be back from the restroom in just a minute."


	2. Chapter 2

It hits us both at the same time. Ainsley is Sam's fiancée! Josh's mouth is hanging open. I reach over and gently push his chin up to close it. Just then Sam returns to the table.

"Shoot. I should've known they'd be on time now that Donna's in charge." I hear him mumble as he approaches. I don't think Josh heard him. He's still looking back and forth between Sam and Ainsley with a bemused expression on his face.

"Congratulations!" I give Sam a hug. I was so concerned that I was going to have to try to make friends with someone completely out of my league. I didn't consider the possibility that I might already know Sam's fiancée! He and Ainsley were so cute together while they worked at the White House. Everyone could see the sexual tension between them. I had always thought that if she had stayed at the White House longer they would have got together.

"You lying dog." Josh says to Sam in a semi-serious tone as we all sit down. I recognize it as banter, but Ainsley doesn't.

"Lying is an awfully strong word, Josh." She admonishes.

"I said she didn't hate the idea of moving to DC." Sam defends himself.

"You said she'd have to re-take the bar!" Josh shoots back at Sam.

"Okay, yes, I lied about that."

"Josh," Ainsley tries again, "Being that I was under consideration for the White House Counsel position, prior to that time in which you met with Sam, in my opinion, I felt it best that Sam not tell you my name until we had resolution as to employment."

Josh stares at Ainsley for a few moments. Then starts to chuckle. Finally, he says

"If what you just said was that you didn't want to tell me until you both had job offers, well, I guess I of all people can appreciate that logic."

Sam looks relieved. "You know, Josh" He says "until now, I didn't really understand why nothing happened between you & Donna when you worked together. You obviously loved each other, but neither of you would admit it."

I'm confused. Why does Sam think he understands it now? How is this like Josh and I?

"Well, it's not like you're going to be her direct supervisor. The two of you will have completely different chains of command. Like Donna and I will now."

"I know but I didn't want there to be any question about how she got her job. So I think I understand why you denied your feelings for Donna for so long."

Oh. I get it. It always comes back to this. People will assume I got my job because I'm sleeping with Josh. But Ainsley is smart. She's an attorney. People won't think she got her job because of Sam.

"I'm really hungry. Can we order now?" Ainsley begs. I'm really glad she changed the subject. I hide behind the menu. I was right about not being in the same league, but at least I'm already friends with Ainsley.

"Of course, cupcake." Sam smiles indulgently at her.

Once, we've ordered our food. I decide its time to get the whole story. Have they been together all this time?! I know we drifted apart a little after Sam left the White House but I didn't think he'd keep something like this from us.

"So Ainsley, what have you been up to for the last four years?" I say with a small grin. She smiles at Sam, then turns back to Josh and I and launches into her story. She talks pretty fast, but I notice that her speaking style is pretty normal when she's not nervous. And when it comes to talking about Sam, she doesn't seem nervous at all.

"Well, you know when Lionel Tribbey left the White House, he asked me to go with him. I was completely shocked, since he is so liberal, and I am so not, but he said that he really liked working together. We had a good balance and he had negotiated bringing an associate with him to the firm. It was a good career move, and nobody had given me a reason to stay in DC." She shoots Sam a pointed look and he blushes. We all know that relationships are not Sam's strong suit.

"My parents were shocked that I'd move to California, but compared to working at a democratic White House, it wasn't that hard to convince them that it was the right thing for me. Sam and I kept in touch. We started dating when he was running for the California 47th but a campaign isn't the time to advertise a brand new relationship, especially with a member of the opposite party! When he lost, I was really kind of surprised that he decided to stay in California, but he wanted to give us a real chance at a relationship and a bi-coastal romance between two incredibly busy attorneys would have been practically impossible. And the rest, as they say, is history."

"Do you have a Wedding date? How'd he propose? I want more than just the rest is history!" I exclaim. Josh and Sam give each other amused looks. This has definitely drifted into the girl talk area.

Ainsley holds her left hand out to me. It has a HUGE rock on it. "Wow" is all I can say. She giggles and Sam looks very pleased with himself. Really. It's stunning. A square cut diamond, completely surrounded by small round diamonds and the band is completely inset with small round diamonds too. It must have cost a fortune.

"We don't have a date yet. He just proposed a couple weeks ago."

Josh gets a look. And tilts his head. Then looks pointedly at Sam. "When I came out to California, _a month ago_ , you said you were getting married."

Sam blushes again. "Ah, well . . ."

"Yes, about that! Apparently he told _you_ , before he told _me_!" Ainsley interjects. We all look to Sam for an explanation.

"When Ainsley came back from Leo's funeral she told me that she had talked to CJ about the White House Counsel job, even though she'd just started at the Hoover Institute." He looks at her pointedly. "So we had discussed the possibility of coming back to the White House before you came out to California. We were going to see if her resume got any traction before I called you to see if you had a place for me. Your coming out unannounced was a really nice touch. I knew I was going to propose to Ainsley, _we had already been talking about getting married,_ and I wanted you to know that I had someone else to consider in decision making. But I wasn't quite prepared to fill you in completely." He shrugs. Ainsley looks at him adoringly. I can tell that she wasn't really upset when she teased him.

"So," Ainsley says looking at me "I'm going to need lots of help planning the wedding. Since you've got the experience, you're my new best friend!"

"Oh! Josh planned our wedding." I say with a smirk. "You two will have lots of fun with that."

Just then our food arrives. As the waitress is putting it on the table, Josh leans over and whispers in my ear "You are in _so_ much trouble!"


End file.
